


Lord Bane´s Murder Mysteries - An unholy christmas

by Katy_777



Series: Lord Bane´s Murder Mysteries [4]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: 1920s, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries Fusion, Alternate Universe - Police, M/M, Private Investigators
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-24
Updated: 2018-08-27
Packaged: 2019-07-01 23:29:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 10,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15784347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katy_777/pseuds/Katy_777
Summary: With the end of World War I, a new era was born. An era full of glitz and glamour. Life was a seemingly never-ending party. Magnus Bane is a distant relative of the royal family. He has a title, wealth, a penchant for extravagance and he never gets tired of getting himself into trouble. He´d travelled the whole world in order to see and learn new things, only interested in parties, excesses and adventures behind your wildest imagination. At least that´s what most people think. But in reality, Magnus tries to escape his past and the unsolved mysteries surrounding the tragic events of his childhood. As Magnus decides to return home to New York after years of travelling, he doesn´t only find a new adventure in solving mysterious murders as a private investigator, but he also finds new friends and partners in Detective Inspector Alec Lightwood and his police constable Simon Lewis. The more time he spends in New York, the more he finds himself a new home, and with his new home, he forgets about the past that haunted him for so long. But that doesn´t mean that his past has forgotten him as well. Will Magnus be able to solve the greatest murder case of his life, or will he just end as a murder victim himself?





	1. Chapter 1

Magnus couldn´t help but thinking how beautiful Alec was. How beautiful this moment was. How perfect.  
And then, in the fraction of a second, he decided to do something stupid.  
To do something he´d sworn himself not to do even though he wanted it for quite a while now.  
He leaned forward, minimizing the space between him and Alexander until their faces were so close that they breathed the same air. And then their lips touched.

“Magnus what are you doing the- stop it right now! And put this away!”, Raphael let out an annoyed breath. What was worse than Magnus doing stupid shit while solving a case? Right! Magnus doing Christmas shopping…  
He really had no idea that there could be an increase to Magnus doing shopping in general (what was already hell) but apparently, it´s possible.  
But how would he have been supposed to know?!  
After all, it´s not like he would have ever done Christmas shopping with Magnus. Normally, Magnus avoided Christmas and everything that was anyhow distantly related to it as if he could burst into flames just by looking at a mistletoe.  
There were only two things in the world that Magnus Bane doesn´t celebrate: his own birthday and Christmas.  
(Both because he didn´t wanna think about his family or childhood.)  
And there was normally nothing that he wouldn´t celebrate. He means, the man had once thrown a birthday party for his cat but if you even mention that his birthday´s approaching than you can be sure as hell that he will jump on the next train and hide himself in a cave god knows where until his birthday is over again. And the same has always gone for Christmas.  
But this year, this year it was different.  
Magnus has ordered Will and Jem to hang up the fairy lights and Ragnor had bought a Christmas tree. Well, more like the fourth Christmas tree already. The three Christmas trees before have all ended as victims of Chairman meow who seemed to be more interested in taking them apart than using his scratching post; Raphael was pretty sure that it was only a matter of time until Ragnor had to get them their fifth one. And now he was with Magnus in Manhattan, shopping Christmas presents for everyone.  
He wasn´t complaining. How could he? Magnus finally seemed to be a little more lighthearted, as if he had been finally able to forget a bit of his past and to let Tessa go. Raphael had no idea what caused that change, but he had the slight idea that a certain detective had something to do with it.  
And so he endured Ragnor´s rants every time Chairman murdered the next tree, he endured Izzy´s attempts to make christmas cookies, even though he still wasn´t sure if she secretly wasn´t trying to poison them all with her (truly murderous) cooking skills, and he even endured getting dragged through half New York by Magnus who seemingly wanted to buy EVERYTHING that he saw in any of the colorful decorated store windows (the man behaved like a child in a candy store).  
It was hell, but a good kind of hell. Because heart-eyes suited his friend more than any of his over-expensive outfits or numerous rings could ever do. And he also seemed to be more…  
Oh for gods sake what was he doing there now?!  
Magnus had gone to a street musician, talking and laughing with him. Raphael eyed the whole situation suspiciously, his eyes narrowed to crescents. Magnus in the near of a music instrument was always a dangerous situation, one that you should better defuse sooner than later.  
Raphael eyed the whole scenery attentively as he had to notice that Magnus lend himself the street musician´s violin, seemingly attempting to play on it.  
That was a worst-case scenario.  
Raphael rushed forward to his best friend before he could start to play and gave him a warning glare.  
“Magnus, what is this supposed to be?”  
“I´m trying to play the violin.”, Magnus grinned.  
“Don´t you dare to!”  
“Come on Raph, that´s not a charango! Let me at least try.”, Magnus pouted, but Raphael wouldn´t fall for it. He wouldn´t give in. Not when it was about Magnus playing music.  
“Dios ayúdame”, Raphael took in a deep breath, “Magnus, this is not far from a charango.”  
“Why are you holding this against me. My music was not that bad.”  
“You´ve once made a little kid starting to cry because of your music!”  
The street musician gave them a worried look, seemingly regretting his choice to hand his instrument over to Magnus.  
Raphael decided to take things in his hands. He took the violin and handed it over to the musician before grabbing Magnus´ hand and dragging him away from the dangerous zone and over into the Central park.  
Magnus had pouted and complained a few more seconds but then gave in and followed him. The were walking in step side by side, breathing in a mix of roasted almonds, cinnamon, mulled wine, cigarette smoke and car exhaust fumes. The smell of Christmas in New York.  
“Are you finally going to tell me why we´re doing all this?”, Raphael looked over to his friend.  
“Wasn´t the parc your idea?”, Magnus raised his brow.  
“No, Magnus, I mean THIS”, he demonstratively lifted up the dozen bags full of overpriced Christmas presents and cheesy decorations that he was carrying around. “Since when aren´t you regarding the Christmas spirit as a deadly sickness anymore?”  
“You know that you´re exaggerating, right?”  
“No, I´m not Mags. What aren´t you telling me?”, Raphael gave him a questioning look.  
You have no idea, Magnus thought. He wouldn´t even know how to start. The list of things he hasn´t told Raphael yet has become long during the last months, even though it wasn´t burdening him that much anymore. What was mostly because he had been able to forget about it. His aunt was still in England and he hasn´t heard anything from her in weeks, he was mostly busy with his business and he had Alexander.  
Two weeks had passed since their kiss on the staircase in front of his house, and he still had no idea what they were going to do about it.  
It has only been one kiss and nothing more and it hasn´t repeated. Only this one kiss.  
And now, Magnus knew that for sure, they had to decide if they would forget about it and continue as work partners, acting like nothing ever happened, or they could risk it, finding out if it could be more, but also risking the partnership they love so much. And don´t forget that there was still the fact that Magnus would have to commit a murder in the close future.  
He sighed, not caring if he was arousing Raphael´s curiosity.  
This was so screwed up.  
They just passed a little lake as Raphael stopped abruptly, eyes wide in shock.  
Magnus frowned but followed his gaze with his eyes.  
The surface of the lake was slightly frozen and there was a hole in the ice and beyond it you could recognize the outlines of a human body which swam under the ice in the water. Dead.


	2. Chapter 2

“How are you always doing this?”, Raphael sighed as they stood in the icy Central Park, surrounded by police men who were all in a hurry, trying to fish the body out of the water, to shut off the area and to get rid of the numerous onlookers. “Why do you always find dead bodies no matter where you are?”  
“Well”, Magnus said, “To be accurate I have to say that you were the one who had found the dead this time.”  
Raphael gave him an `are you kidding me´ look, eyebrows raised and definitely annoyed by the young nervous and forgetful patrolman who already questioned them way too long because he seemingly repeated every question like three times.  
But right now he was just staring at them, eavesdropping on their conversation as if it would be the most fascinating thing in the world when two witnesses have a discussion.  
“What?”, Raphael asked as he noticed the look on the young police man´s face. Magnus actually felt a little bit sorry for him. Grumpy Raphael really wasn´t a delightful company, especially not if grumpy Raphael was mad at you for wasting his precious time.  
“I- I´m sorry”, the young patrolman stuttered, totally flustered, “It´s just that y- you´re Magnus Bane.”  
“Yes, he knows that. Besides, we had to give our names to your records four times.”, Raphael´s voice was icy.  
Magnus nudged him in the side, shooting him his `be friendly´ glare. Raphael caught it and sighed annoyed, obviously rolling his eyes.  
“I´m sorry. It´s just that we´re standing here for quite a while now and it´s cold.”  
“Oh”, The young man finally seemed to realize that fact as well, “of course, I´m sorry. It´s just… you´re such a great private investigator. How have you managed to solve all these cases?”  
So that´s why he´d been so nervous? Because he was… what? A fan? Of Magnus?  
Magnus furrowed his brows when he heard a light laugh behind him, turning around he saw Alec and Simon coming closer (Finally! They´re here as well).  
“You wanna know how he´d solved the murders?”, he grinned, “by doing things like kidnapping my sister, stealing and even adopting evidences, by joining on illegal box fights and motor races and let´s not forget his informers: the pirate, the English prime minister and once he´d even consulted a witch.”  
The young police man´s eyes went wide at that. He turned his view back to Magnus, staring at him in total disbelief.  
“What shall I say detective”, Magnus tried to sound as charming as possible, “I´m an extraordinary person so I make use of extraordinary measures.”  
“Extraordinary measures?”, Alec raised one eyebrow but couldn´t fight the lopsided grin, “Was the one time where you broke into an active crime scene through the originally locked kitchen window also such an extraordinary measure?”  
“It was payback.”, Magnus shrugged, grinning.  
“Oh please don´t start with the Payback-thing again.”, Raphael despaired. He´d left Magnus´ side and was now standing next to Simon, one arm wrapped around his waist. “But really, it´s like you were cursed. I mean there is no week passing by without you accidentally stumbling over a dead body.”  
“I´m not cursed.”, Magnus insisted, laughing, but mentally he had to admit that he wasn´t so sure about that.  
“Well”, Simon joined in their little conversation, “at least it´s not a murder this time. Just a poor fool who thought it would be a good idea to do ice skating on the thin ice and broke in. That happens more often than you think.”  
“Meaning that there is nothing to do for us here.”, Magnus concluded, feeling sad and relieved at the same time. On the one hand, he wanted to solve another murder case with Alexander by his side, but on the other hand he still had no idea how to handle things regarding their kiss. He let out a heavy sigh. “Come on, Raph. Let´s go.”, he said, attempting to leave but not without giving the detective inspector one last wink, making him blush (he had to suppress an inappropriate chuckle; the winking-makes-him-blush-thing still worked).  
Raphael only reluctantly left Simon´s side, following him out of the parc.

As they entered Magnus´ mansion through the front door, they were welcomed by gray clouds of smoke waving towards them, not to mention the smell of burned cookies.  
Magnus and Raphael exchanged a view, both nearly synchronically rolling their eyes before they headed towards the kitchen, that, Magnus had to realize, looked like someone would have thrown an explosive device into the bowl with the cookie dough. Ragnor stood at the open kitchen window, trying to wag out the smoke with a cloth. More in vain than actually successful. Izzy stood at the table, checking on the outcome of her baking; something on a baking sheet that looked like it had once been supposed to be a cookie but had now more similarities with a piece of coal.  
As she saw them she gave them a wide grin.  
“I see you´ve tried your luck again.”, Magnus commented while stepping fully into the kitchen, taking a closer look at the chaos surrounding him.  
“I think my cooking becomes better.”, she cheered.  
She could be so cute. Magnus didn´t wanted to burst her bubble.  
Ragnor, on the other hand, didn´t seem to care.  
“That´s not cooking, that´s attempted murder.”, he commented from his place at the window.  
Magnus took a closer look at his friend, furrowing his brows.  
“Tell me my old friend, why is there a broken egg on your shoulder?”  
But Ragnor just narrowed his eyes, “Ask our little poisoner here”, he pointed at Izzy who just shrugged, grinning at them sheepishly.  
“And why are you covered in floor?”, he laughed as he saw the white powder that was covering her black hair and her thin shoulders.  
“The pack of floor dropped from the top shelf on my head.”, she explained grinning. “But it was worth the effort. You should try.”, she said, offering him a cookie.  
Well, crap.  
Mentally Magnus was already writing his last will at the sight of the black smoking something that Izzy wanted him to eat.  
He needed a distraction. He had to change the topic. NOW!  
He turned back to Ragnor, “Aren´t you freezing?”, he asked, hoping that it would spare him from eating that- whatever it was supposed to be.  
“Yeah, I am.”, Ragnor complained. “It has become ice cold outside. You can´t go out without a thick jacket anymore, you can´t even stand at an open window. But I have to take care of the mess."  
You can´t…  
Oh damn it.  
But yay.  
No he shouldn´t be happy.  
But he can work with Alexander again.  
“Magnus what´s wrong.”, Raphael stepped to his side. He´d noticed how Magnus´ composure has stiffened and how the expression on his face has changed. You could nearly hear the gears working in his head.  
“It wasn´t an accident.”, Magnus realized.  
“What are you talking about?”, Raphael frowned.  
“The dead in the parc.”, Magnus explained, “It was no accident.”  
“You don´t wanna say that it was-“  
“Murder.”


	3. Chapter 3

This part of the Central Parc was unnaturally empty. The police men seemingly must have put great effort in shutting off the area and keeping away the onlookers because there were only a handful of people walking around as Magnus and Raphael climbed over the police cordon. There was a cold breeze as they waited for the detective inspector and Constable Lewis to arrive while Magnus was inspecting the area around the sea.  
It didn´t last long until two familiar figures were coming towards them.  
“I´m wondering if you´ll ever respect the purpose of a police Cordon.”, Alec laughed as they stepped to their sides. “Are you now please going to explain to us what we´re doing here again?”  
“You don´t like our date so far?”, Magnus winked, making Alec blush.  
“It´s not a date!”, he insisted, his cheeks reddening, but Magnus just grinned sheepishly, “besides it´s cold.”  
“And that´s exactly the point, my dear detective.”, Magnus lectured.  
“What are you talking about?”, Alec frowned.  
“Look at the sea.”, Magnus pointed at the place where the dead seemingly broke into the water. “The place where he broke in is at a slope. It must have been hard for him to get down there without stumbling, whilst on the other side, the area is flat, so it would have made more sense to get on the ice from this side, right?”  
“Maybe he has done it that way?”, Simon offered, “He could have walked over the ice and first broke in later, as he´d already reached the other end.”  
But Magnus just shook his head.  
“The ice is too thin. There is no chance that he would have ever made it that far. Besides, look at the ice. The remaining surface seemed to be untouched, there is just this one whole. If he would have walked over the ice than there would be cracks everywhere.”  
“And that´s what makes you believe that it was murder?”, Raphael raised his brow, “That this fool who was seemingly already stupid enough to do ice skating on this only half-frozen sea was also stupid enough to choose the wrong side to enter the ice?”  
“Wait, you think it was murder?!”, Simon looked from Raphael to Magnus and back to Raphael.  
Alec raised both his brows, giving him a surprised look.  
“I think it was murder because it was cold.”, Magnus ignored the reactions of Alec and Simon and went on to answer Raphael´s question.  
“That´s not an argument, Mags.”  
“It is because the victim hasn´t worn any jacket. Do you remember what Ragnor had said before?”  
Raphael´s eyes widened, realization spreading across his features, “He´d said that you can´t go out without a thick jacket anymore.”  
“No one, no matter how stupid, would go out without a jacket anymore. Especially not if he plans to do ice skating on a lake.”  
“You think he wasn´t here to do ice-skating?”  
“I think he´d been already dead when someone threw him into the lake.”  
“Then it was indeed murder.”, Alec concluded. “In this case we have to talk with the coroner. He has to search for traces of an unnatural death.”  
“Ok, let´s go.”, Magnus walked past Alec as this one turned up his nose.  
“What smells so scorched here?”, he frowned.  
Magnus and Raphael exchanged a quick view.  
“I´m afraid that´s us, detective.”, Magnus admitted.  
“Oh god what did you this time?”, Alec sighed.  
“Nothing. I´m totally innocent on this.”, Magnus insisted.  
As Alec raised his eyebrows skeptically, giving Magnus THE look, Raphael interjected.  
“Your sister has tried to bake.”  
“Oh god.”, Alec said, shock and worry covering his face. “Are you ok? You haven´t eaten anything of it, have you?”, he nearly sounded panicked. Magnus had to suppress a giggle. The detective seemingly knew exactly about his sister´s cooking skills.  
“With all due respect for you sister, detective”, Raphael attempted to answer, “If we would have eaten any of it than we probably wouldn´t stand here right now.”  
“Oh come on, Raph it was not THAT bad.”, Magnus tried to be nice, knowing exactly that it´d been that bad.  
“There was cookie dough at the ceiling, Mags. At the CEILING!”  
They were interrupted by Alec bursting out into laughter. “Yeah, that sounds like Isabelle.”, he laughed.  
Magnus caught himself how he was obviously staring at him. It was a rare view to see him laughing like that, and it made him wanna kiss these lips again.  
He had to look away before the thought of doing something stupid again would become too tempting to resist.  
“C´mon guys, we have to go.”

“It´s strange to visit the morgue officially.”, Magnus commented as they arrived at the hospital.  
“How do you visit the morgue unofficially?”, Simon asked curious.  
“By breaking in at night. Like he´s normally doing it during a case.”, Raphael explained dryly, making Simon and Alec stop abruptly, staring at them in shock.  
“So you don´t only break into active crime scenes but also into the coroner´s office?”, Alec asked reproachful.  
“Be honest, detective: Does this really surprise you?”, Magnus raised one brow, making Alec letting out a heavy breath.  
“No, and that´s the scary thing.”, he said, but grinned anyways.  
As they reached the door to the office Alec stopped, pulling out his gun.   
Magnus looked past him, his widening as he saw the smashed glass pane and the opened door.   
Someone had broken in.


	4. Chapter 4

“You two stay here and wait for my ok. This is way too dangerous.”, Alec told them with a lowered voice. Simon had left Raphael´s side and had stepped next to his detective inspector, his gun unlocked and ready to go in.  
“Why did you have to do that, detective?”, Raphael complained, “You can´t just tell Magnus Bane to not do something. Especially not with the reason that it would be too dangerous. For him, that´s practically an invitation to do something stupid.”  
“Practically it is. And technically I´m standing right beside you.”, Magnus hissed, “So could you please stop talking about me as if I wouldn´t be here right now?!”  
“Guys”, Simon tried to sound calming, “I´m pretty sure this is not the right time for-“  
He got interrupted by the sound of something crashing on the floor.  
Alec and Simon didn´t wasted any further minute, they stormed into the office, guns raised and ready for a fight if it was necessary, but the room was empty, just the back door stood open.  
“Lewis, you follow him directly, I go back and try to cut off his way.”, Alec ordered while he was already on his way of storming out of the office again.  
Magnus and Raphael looked puzzled after them.  
“Let me guess, you´re not going to run after them?”  
“No.”  
“But you are going to sneak through the coroner´s personal notes while they´re chasing their little intruder.”  
“Exactly.”, Magnus cheered and directly started to look through some files that he´d found on the overfilled desk.  
Raphael followed his example and picked up something that looked like an autopsy report.  
“What do you think wanted the intruder in here?”, Raphael asked while he tried to decipher the terrible illegible handwriting of the coroner.  
“I don´t know”, Magnus said while he was leafing through the numerous notes, “But it wouldn´t wonder me if it had something to do with our reason of the visit.”  
“You mean the dead in the lake.”, Raphael concluded, before he stopped, frowning as he read the passage again. And a third time, trying to make sure that he hasn´t read wrong.  
“What´s wrong Raph?”  
“It seems that you´ve been wright again, mi amigo.”, Raphael muttered, still reading through the report, “The coroner couldn´t find any water in the victim´s lungs.”  
“No water, no drowning in the lake.”, Magnus looked around in the room. There was a broken test tube on the bottom right next to a table with boxes. Magnus went over and inspected the boxes and their content.  
“What are you doing there now?”, Raphael stepped to his side, eyeing the boxes suspiciously.  
God knows what´s in there…  
“When the intruder had thrown down that test tube then this must mean that he´d been at this table. So whatever he was looking for is probably in one of those boxes.”  
“If he hadn´t taken it with him.”  
“I don´t think so.”, Magnus raised one of the boxes and read its labeling. “In this box are the personal things of our dead. And it seems to be still untouched. I´m pretty sure the intruder wanted something out of this box.”  
“If the intruder has anything to do with our case at all.”, Raphael pointed out.  
“If not than this would be a huge coincidence, don´t you think?”  
“You mean like the huge coincidences of you always stumbling over murder victims?”, Raphael raised one brow.  
Magnus chose to let this uncommented. But he couldn´t deny that Raphael had a point. Maybe he was wright after all, and he was really cursed. It wouldn´t even surprise him, considering which family he came from. After all, Magnus knew only too well whose son he was, and what his blood relatives were capable of.  
So instead of giving Raphael some sassy or mocking answer, he just opened the box looking at the things the dead had carried with him when he got murdered.  
It wasn´t much. And it all didn´t seem to be spectacular. But there was one thing…  
There was a little pendant in there. A golden guardian angel with spread wings that hang around a long gold chain. Magnus took out the pendant with shaky hands, swallowing hard. His breath became faster, every breath he took in became heavier as he stared down at the little angel in his hand with wide eyes.  
He could hear Raphael talking to him, he could hear him calling his name. He noticed that Raphael´s tone became more and more worried with every time he said his name without him responding to it. But that all seemed tobe so far away right now...  
“That´s hers.”, Magnus whispered, voice thin.  
“Whose? What´s wrong mi amigo? I need to know.”, Raphael cupped his face and turned his head away from the little angel and towards him, creating eye contact.  
And it worked.  
Magnus snapped out of his trance, still shocked.  
“Tessas.”, he had to swallow again hard as he finally managed to say out the words loud, “This was Tessa´s necklace. It was a unique piece, so it must be hers. She´d worn it the day we lost her.”  
“Dios mio”, Raphael´s eyes widened as well as the realization took over, “But that would mean that-“  
“That whoever this man was, he had probably something to do with my sister´s death.”


	5. Chapter 5

As Simon ran through one of the back doors out of the hospital he nearly stumbled into Alec, both stopping abruptly, breathing heavy as they recovered from their sprint. A sprint that had seemingly brought them nothing since there was not a single trace of their intruder. How was that even possible? He couldn´t be that fast, could he? Alec looked around, searching for any kind of hint that could tell him where their mysterious man had gone. But there was nothing. A few pigeons picking up breadcrumbs, some kids playing hide and seek, a young girl on a park bench, reading a book and two nurses from the hospital who were walking home, talking cheerfully with each other.  
“Where did he go?”, Simon asked, still trying to catch his breath.  
“I don´t know, have you even been able to catch a glimpse of him?”  
Simon just shook his head.  
“Yeah, me neither.”, Alec sighed.  
What was this all about? It couldn´t be a coincidence that there was an burglary into the coroner´s office the day they´d found a drowned man who possibly hadn´t drowned at all, could it? Besides, Magnus was involved in this case and that normally meant a lot of trouble, crazy actions and strange conditions. So there was a huge chance that this had not been a coincidence. But that raised the question what the hell was going on here.  
“C´mon Lewis”, he signaled him to come with him, “let´s check on the others before whatever foolery Magnus is doing right know while we´re gone is getting out of control.”

As Alec and Simon walked into the coroner´s office, they saw Raphael sitting on one of the wooden chairs, thoughtfully inspecting a gold necklace that he held in his hand.  
He hadn´t noticed their return, too lost in his own thoughts. And there was something else that was extremely disturbing.  
“Where´s Magnus?”, Alec asked as they stepped into the room. In his mind he could already see Magnus climbing up the hospital wall (he hadn´t used his throw anchor in a while now) or him stealing one of the emergency cars (he loved chases).  
Raphael looked up at them, and the expression on his face confirmed Alec in his concern for Magnus.  
A bad feeling started to spread in his stomach.  
“I´ve put him in a taxi and sent him home.”, he said, looking back at the pendant, something that Alec thought looked like a little angel.  
“Why have you done that?”, Alec frowned.  
“This necklace”, Raphael started, holding up the little angel, “Was among the personal stuff of our dead. It is unique. A custom-made product.”  
“And?”, Alec didn´t really know what Raphael wanted to tell them with that. What had this little piece of jewelry to do with Magnus?  
“And it once belonged to Magnus´ sister Tessa. She´d worn it the day they´d lost her.”  
…  
Alec´s thoughts were racing. How was this even possible? What had this man to do with the murder of Magnus´ baby sister? Had he maybe even been the murderer himself? Was that how Magnus should get revenge? Should he now go and catch the guy who murdered his sister´s murderer? No, it couldn´t be like that, could it? Fate couldn´t be that cruel.  
And then there was the one question that scared him the most:  
What foolery was Magnus going to do now?

As Magnus stood outside of his house, directly in front of his front door, he didn´t know if he would find the strength to open it, if he would find the strength to enter the place he meanwhile considered home, if he would be able to talk with the other residents of his home, his newly found family.  
He still had no idea how he´d even managed to get out of the taxi and up the stairs… But every step had costed him a lot of strength.  
He couldn´t think straight. Everything, from paying the taxi driver over using his keys to open the door to having a conversation with one of the others seemed so meaningless to him right now. The only thing he could think about was their dead man.  
He didn´t had an identity card with him so no one knew his name, he was murdered and then someone had thrown his dead body in a lake in the Central Park and he had his sister Tessa´s necklace. But that´s all they knew about him, except one more thing. But Raphael thought he could use a little time-out because he´d feared that he could rush into things and do something dangerously stupid. And to be honest, he was really in the mood for something like that right now.   
But what had Raphael thought: that he would make himself a nice day off? He should actually know Magnus long enough by now to know that this ain´t gonna happen.  
So he would go and do something stupid.  
And he already knew where to start.  
He needed to find Will or Jem. Or both. Yeah, the both of them together were probably even better.

He found Will and Jem in the Salon standing next to the left-overs of what had once been there fourth Christmas tree. By now it was nothing more than a piece of firewood. Literally.   
“I see Chairman had been diligent again.”, he tried to do small talk while stepping into the room. “Does Ragnor know?”  
“Yeah”, Jem said it in a way that nearly said everything. Ragnor was probably not in the best mood and Magnus wouldn´t even be surprised if he would right now hunt the poor Chairman through the house, armed with a poker.  
“You two have once worked down at the docks, haven´t you?”, Magnus asked.  
“Yes we have, why? Do you consider changing your profession?”, Will grinned.  
“No, but there was a murder today. We don´t know the dead´s identity but there stood something about a typical sailor-tattoo in the coroner´s notes so maybe someone down at the docks knows more about him.”  
“We can visit some old friends and make some inquiries if you want?”, Jem offered, “Well, I can visit some old friends. Will should maybe better stay away from there.”  
“Why´s that?”, Magnus frowned.  
“Let´s just say that he had a tendency to piss people off in the past. And some of them were so mad I´m not sure if a further encounter between them would take a good end.”  
“I don´t know what you´re talking about, Jem.”, Will pouted, “I´m a delightful company.”  
“No you´re not. You´re always saying dreadfully mad things, you´re always way too honest with the people and most of the time you love to annoy them.”, Jem argued.  
“Exactly.”, Will grinned, “I´m entertaining and complex, that´s what makes me so charming.”  
“I´m not sure if you really know what that word means.”, Jem pointed out and Magnus had to suppress a grin. Maybe it was good that Raph had send him home after all. Being here definitely distracted him from his current situation. And he´d always felt safe here, even though he couldn´t tell why. Maybe because he´d really found himself a place where he belonged, where he was surrounded by loving and caring people who were like him: funny and crazy and always there for you if you needed them.  
And once more he wondered if it had been the right decision to make that deal with his aunt. But maybe, only maybe, that wasn´t important anymore. Because if this man had something to do with Tessa´s death, then maybe he would be able to solve the case on his own. Or even better, with the help of the detective inspector. On every case without his aunt. Because then, and only then he would be off the hook, then he wouldn´t have to kill anyone.  
Then he could really have both: Revenge for Tessa and escape from his damnation.


	6. Chapter 6

Magnus sat in his salon, looking down at the old photograph in his hands. Tessa and him on a Christmas party at their uncle´s estate in London. He remembered how long they´d had to stand still to make that photo. How nervous Tessa had been because it had been the first time someone had ever taken a photo of her.  
He looked down at one of the few remaining pictures he´d had of his baby sister: on the photo she wore one of her good dresses. It had a dark green with black loops and was full of ruffles. Her hair was open and curly and she wore her golden guardian angel around her neck.  
He just thought about how his aunt got drunk at that party when he heard the doorbell rang. Ragnor was seemingly still busy with being grumpy and mad at Chairman so Magnus went to open the door.  
What Magnus hadn´t expected to see as he opened the wooden front door was Alexander, of all people, standing outside his house with a bottle of Bourbon in his hand, giving him a reassuring smile.  
“I´ve thought that you could use a drink.”, he said, holding up the bottle demonstratively.  
“Since when are you buying smuggled alcohol?”, Magnus asked puzzled. Somehow this had been the first thing that had come him into his mind: that his law-abiding detective inspector had actually a bottle of seemingly smuggled French bourbon with him.  
“I´ve got it out of the evidence room. It´s an old closed case so no one needs it anymore or will ever miss it.”, Alec shrugged.  
Magnus raised a brow, “I fear that I have a bad influence on you, Alexander.”, he pointed out, but it didn´t last long until a grin curled up the corners of his mouth.  
“What do you say? Our usual place?”, Alec pointed at the top step of the staircase and Magnus couldn´t help but to laugh out loud.  
He got them two glasses and then they sat there, outside his house, drinking smuggled bourbon that had once been an important evidence in a crime while watching how the sun went down.  
“Where have you left Raphael and Simon?”, Magnus asked as he took a nip on the glass. He had to admit that the bourbon was good. It was sweet and it lightly smelled like caramel. It was exactly what Magnus needed right now.  
“They´re back at the central parc. If someone had carried a dead body through Manhattan just to throw it into this lake then there must be at least one witness who has seen anything.”, Alec explained, ruffling his nose and making a face as he took a sip as well.  
“Not much of a drinker?”, Magnus asked amused, even though he already knew the answer.  
“No, not really.”, Alec confirmed, putting down the glass next to him on the step.  
“So”, Alec let out a heavy sigh, “Are you going to tell me, or shall I guess?”  
“Tell you about what, detective?”, Magnus asked.  
“What foolery you´ve planned this time.”  
“I don´t know what yo-“  
“Oh come on, Magnus. I know you long enough now to know exactly that you´re not just going to sit around here and pretend that you haven´t just found a hint in the murder-case of your baby sister. What foolery will it be?”, Alec gave him a questioning look, but not strict or reproachful, just sympathetic.  
`You mean besides the murder that I´ve planned with my aunt´, Magnus thought, but didn´t dare to ever speak out these words aloud.  
“I´ve sent Will and Jem down to the docks.”, he confessed instead.  
Alec furrowed his brows. “Why?”, before adding, “Please tell me the pirate isn´t on board as well?”  
“Was the pun intended?”, Magnus laughed.  
“No, not really.”, Alec laughed as well as he realized what he´d just said.  
“The dead had a sailor-tattoo, so they´re going to questioning the people there. They´d once worked at the docks as well so I´ve thought that they would probably have more chances to gather information.”, Magnus went back to answer his question.  
“And that´s all?”, Alec asked, seemingly a little bit disbelieving.  
`No that´s not all but the greatest of all fooleries is yet still to come.´  
But instead he just said, sassy as always and with a mocking grin on his lips: “Would you prefer if I jump into the ice-cold lake as well to search on its ground for further evidences.”  
“Actually”, Alec laughed, “I´d expected you to do something like that. That´s why I´m here.”  
“To babysit me?”, Magnus asked skeptical, raising one brow.  
“No, to be there for you.”  
“Why?”   
“You mean besides that we´re good friends and partners?”  
Instead of answering to that Magnus simply raised both of his eyebrows, making Alec sigh.  
“Because you´re important to me.”, he finally confessed, instantly blushing.  
Oh screw it. Magnus had already decided to do something stupid anyways. And this foolery was at least something he really wanted to do, besides, it would bring him on other thoughts.  
So he didn´t hesitate any longer, instead he leaned forward, giving Alec enough time to pull back but he didn´t, instead he leaned forward as well.  
Alec´s lips were sweet and they still tasted like the stolen bourbon. The taste of caramel and plum. And Magnus lost himself in the kiss, his hand wandering from the step on which he´d leaned on up to cup Alexanders face.  
The two of them were so busy with losing themselves in each other that they didn´t notice the figure that stood a few houses away on the other side of the street, half hidden in the shadows, watching them from afar.


	7. Chapter 7

The next morning Magnus got woken up by the chirping of the birds outside his room. The sun was shining through the window, warming his face with her beams. He buried his face in his silk pillow, considering if he should stand up or sleep a further round. Because as far as he would stand up, he would have to face the actions of the last day: Tessa´s necklace, his way out of his deal, Alec´s confession, their kiss.  
He grumbled into his pillow, before lifting himself up and getting down the stairs, definitely in the mood for a coffee. Or ten coffees.  
As he walked into the kitchen Raphael was already there, sitting at the small table, leafing through the New York Times. Even though Magnus could already tell what stood in there. After all, it was always the same in these days: A politician had lied, a prominent person had behaved scandalous and the Wall street had made the riches even richer then they already were.  
“I haven´t heard you coming home last night.”, Magnus muttered as he took himself a cup of coffee, leaning against the countertop.  
Raphael looked up at him, mustering him attentively.  
“It got late so I slept at Simon´s.”  
“Is that so?”, Magnus wiggled his eyebrows, not able to suppress the knowing grin that formed on his lips, causing Raphael to an obvious roll of his eyes. “Have you found something?”  
“Someone had noticed an old rickety car parking near the entry of the Central parc where the lake is. It was suspicious because these kinds of cars are unlikely for Manhattan.”  
“Do we have any information about the car besides that it was rickety and old?”, Magnus asked, clearly interested, “Color? Model? License plate?”  
“No”, Raphael sighed, “but the witness who had told us about it meant that it would have had the logo of a fishing business printed on the door of its passengers side.”  
“The car belonged to a fishing business? Which one?”, Magnus was fully awake by now. The logo of a fishing business on a suspicious car and a sailor-tattoo on their victim? That couldn´t be a coincidence. No way.  
“Don´t know. The guy we were talking to couldn´t remember.”  
Damn it. But it was still something.  
“Are Will and Jem already back from the docks?”, Magnus asked.  
“Mister bad-babysitter and Mister black-eye?”, Raphael raised his brow, “Yeah they should be in the salon right now.”  
Mister Black-eye? Magnus frowned. What have they done now? No, forget that. What has Will done now?  
He left for the salon, not noticing how Raphael stared after him with worry in his eyes. He knew that his friend was not nearly as calm about the necklace as he wanted them all to believe. And there was something else as well. Raphael had noticed it for a while now, that Magnus was keeping things to himself, that he wasn´t telling them everything anymore. Of course Raphael didn´t expected his friend to tell them every little detail of his life, and he also wouldn´t care about Magnus keeping things secret from him if he wouldn´t notice very well how these secrets burdened him. And now there was the thing with Tessa…  
Yes, he was worried. And he had the bad feeling that the worse was yet to come.

As he stepped into the salon Magnus had to notice exactly two things:  
For one, that Ragnor had seemingly bought them there fifth Christmas tree (he was actually curious how long this one would survive in here) and second, that Will and Jem looked like someone had run over them.  
Their shirts were torn and Will had, indeed, a black eye. Their knuckles were bloody and they smelled like they had bathed in a tub full of cheap scotch and fish.  
“What happened?!”, Magnus asked aghast as he looked at them.  
“Will happened.”, Jem said, giving his friend a reproachful look.  
“It wasn´t my fault.”, Will pouted, “The others have started the fight.”  
“You´ve been in a fight?”, Magnus frowned.  
“A bar fight.”, Will grinned.  
“That´s nothing you should be happy about, Will.”, Jem insisted.  
“But we won.”, Will cheered.  
“Please tell me that you haven´t spend the whole night beating yourself with drunken sailors.”  
“No, don´t worry.”, Jem said, “That was after we gathered some useful information.”  
“The man who gave them to us was actually the one who had started the fight.”  
“Because you´ve insulted him Will.”, Jem commented.  
Magnus rubbed his temples. It was way too early for this.  
“And what exactly have you found out?”  
“There´s a dock worker missing who fits to your description. His name was Nathaniel Gray. He even had the anchor-tattoo you´ve mentioned.”  
Nathaniel Gray.  
Now he had his name. What´s left to know was what he´d had to do with Tessa.  
“What else have you found out?”, Magnus demanded.  
“Not much”, Jem said, “He´d seemingly been very secretive, not telling much about himself or his life in general. But we know his address. He´d lived with his aunt down in Brooklyn.”  
“That´s actually all I need to know.”, Magnus said, a smile appearing on his face.  
He had a name, an address and a blood relative. That was more than he could have hoped for.  
“What are you going to do now, boss?”, Will asked curious.  
“I´m going to visit Brooklyn.”, Magnus cheered.

As Magnus stood in front of the old dilapidated building that had seemingly been their victim´s home he felt his heart beat fastening, nearly racing.  
Somewhere in these walls were the answers he´s looking for for so long now. It felt strange, to be finally close to the truth after all these years of uncertainty and unsolved secrets. He felt like back then as he´d confronted his aunt in her mansion. On that fateful evening as he´d agreed to her terms and sold his soul. But this was still different. Back then he´d faced a devil he only knew too well, but now? Now he had no idea what was awaiting him behind this door.  
He looked at the nameplate that hung under the doorbell:  
Harriet Gray.  
Then this must be Nathaniel Gray´s aunt. He wondered if she already knew what had happened with her nephew. But probably not. Magnus didn´t like the idea of being the bearer of bad news, maybe it would have been better he´d informed Alexander instead of coming on his own. He somehow wished for Alec to be here by his side now, but there was no going back anymore. Not now, when he´d come so far. He rang the old bell, holding his breath as he waited for someone to come. And then, finally, after what felt like an eternity but had actually only been a few seconds, someone opened the door.


	8. Chapter 8

“Nate? Is that you?”  
A woman in her forties opened the door. Her brown hair was pinned up and she wore a simple grey dress with a pinafore. But what caught him the most were her eyes. Her brown-grey eyes. They looked exactly like… Tessa´s. No! That was nothing more than a coincidence. Besides, Tessa would first be 19, but this woman was way older. But still, he couldn´t help but thinking that this woman looked somehow familiar to him, as if he had seen her before. Somewhere. But he couldn´t tell where or when or what made that woman appear so familiar to him. He must have been staring but to be fair, the woman was staring at him as well. On the other side: this was not the best corner of New York and he was… well, he was looking like always: an expensive black suit with a burgundy-colored vest, the one or other necklace and a whole bunch of shimmering rings on his fingers. Being inconspicuous was really not one of his strengths…  
After the first shock was gone, the woman looked at him disappointed.  
“You´re not Nathaniel.”, she said, not taking her eyes from him. Magnus couldn´t help but thinking that he seemed to have the same effect on the woman that she´d had on him. The way she looked at him made him feel as if she would know exactly who he was, as if she would recognize him from somewhere as well.  
“You´re Magnus Bane.”, she observed.  
So she did knew him!  
“Yes I am.”, Magnus frowned, “How do you know that?”  
But the woman just raised both of her eyebrows, looking at him as if he would be playing some kind of joke on her.  
“With all respect Lord Bane, your face is in the newspaper. And that nearly every week. I saw a photo of you on the cover of a gossip magazine last week. You´d been on an auction where you´d bought a ruby pendant for the prize of a Parisian town house.”  
Magnus closed his eyes, fighting against the desire to face palm himself. How could he have been so blunt? Of course she knew him. Nearly everyone in New York knew him. Was he really so desperate to not even realize the most simplest things anymore, but instead overinterpreted everything, saw things where were none?  
`Of course you are that desperate, idiot´, he had to remind himself, `if that wouldn´t be the case than you wouldn´t have made that deal with your aunt.´  
“Of course, I´m sorry Misses Gray, but could I talk to you for a moment. It is important. It has something to do with your nephew.”, Magnus tried to sound as polite as possible, considering the circumstances of his visit.  
“Nathaniel?”, the woman´s eye widened, “Is something wrong with him? Is he in trouble again?”  
Trouble?  
Again?  
“I would prefer if we could continue this inside. May I?”

Magnus had known that it wouldn´t be easy to tell the poor woman that her nephew had died, but it had been even worse than he´d imagined. The poor Mrs. Gray was totally distraught by that news (and who could blame her?). He was already comforting her for over an hour as he heard the front door opening. He frowned as he heard the voice of a young woman calling for her `aunt Harriet´.  
“Mrs. Gray”, Magnus gave her a questioning look, “Do you have a niece?”  
“Yes, I have indeed.”, she sniffed.  
“H-how old is she?”  
Oh no, not again. Stop it right now. You´re behaving absolutely ridiculous.  
“Nineteen.”  
Nineteen. She was nineteen…  
“What´s her name?”, Magnus asked, swallowing hard as he felt his heart starting to race again.  
That was when a young girl stepped into the room, giving them a curious look, seemingly puzzled. She had brown hair whose strands fell loosely over her shoulders, hazel eyes and a scar across her cheek.  
“Sophie”, Mrs. Gray called and Magnus let out a breath he didn´t knew he was holding. That wasn´t Tessa. Of course that wasn´t Tessa.   
Mrs. Gray stood up and stepped to the girl in the doorframe.  
“Sophie, that is the honorable Lord Magnus Bane. He came here to inform me about a terrible tragedy.”, she turned back to him. “Lord Bane, may I introduce you to my niece, Miss Sophie Gray.”  
The girl seemed even more puzzled than before, giving her aunt a strange look, her brows furrowed.  
“What happened, aunt Harriet?”  
“Nathanial is dead. He got murdered.”  
The girl clapped her hands over her mouth, eyes wide, clearly shocked, but different to her aunt, she didn´t lose her composure.  
“Mrs. Gray, Miss Sophie”, Magnus tried to sound as emphasizing as possible, “Nathaniel had worn a necklace with a golden guardian angel when he´d died. Do you know anything about it?”  
Sophie frowned, but strangely, her aunt´s face seemed to be totally blank.   
“He´d bought it in a pawnshop. I don´t know where. Why?”, Mrs. Gray told him.  
A pawnshop. So he went straight back to zero…  
“Doesn´t matter, really”, he assured, trying not to sound too disappointed by that answer.  
“Do you know anyone who would have a reason to do your brother any harm, Miss Sophie?”  
The girl looked again over to her aunt, seemingly even more confused than before but surely just because she´d just had to find out that her older brother had died. (he really had to stop with this…)  
She lowered her view, nodding reluctantly.  
“Sadly, yes. My brother”, he couldn´t help but thinking that she´d pronounced these two words in a strange way, “was a gambler. He had a lot of debts and was always in the company of lousy petty criminals.”  
So that´s it? That was his hot track? His way to redemption? A gambler who´d had open debts at the wrong places? And that´s all?  
So it had all been nothing but a huge coincidence. And he´d been stupid enough to fall for it.

Jem and Will leaned against the outside of their taxi, already waiting for Magnus´ return for over an hour now as they saw two girls walking down the boardwalk. One of them, a girl with brown hair and brown eyes and a huge scar on her cheek stopped at the sight of them abruptly, putting one hand on her hip while eyeing them suspiciously.  
“Will Herondale”, she said it in a strict tone, “What foolery is it that you´re planning this time?”  
“Sophie Collins”, Will tried to imitate her way of pronouncing his name, “Believe it or not, I´m planning nothing.”  
The girl, Sophie, gave him a disbelieving look, raising her eyebrows as high as possible in her sceptism.  
“You´re not planning anything?”  
“Well”, Will tried to sound casual, “I´m still planning to get like, totally drunk so that I have an excuse to get a tattoo; I´m planning to be part of a wild police chase where I get to drive a real police car and I´m still planning to convince the people of this world that ducks are evil, but right now? Right now I´m really doing nothing bad.”, Will grinned, Jem rolled his eyes, Sophie stared at him, totally puzzled by his answers and the girl next to Sophie?  
Well she started to laugh. And Will was pretty sure that he´d never heard something as beautiful as this girl´s laughter. He looked at her: She was tall, with brown hair like Sophie and her eyes seemed to have the color of a greyish brown. They reminded him a little bit of Isabelle´s and she had a book in her hand. Will, who´d always loved to read, had to tilt his head so that he was able to read the books´ title.  
“A tale of two cities.”, he murmured, but loud enough for the girl to look up at him questioningly.  
“You know the book?”, she asked.  
“Yeah, actually I do.”, Will said, giving her a charming smile as Sophie decided to interrupt them.  
“Don´t you dare to Will. You won´t start flirting with my best friend. What are you even doing here now?”  
Will let out a huff. “If you want to know it so badly, Sophie: We´re here because we´re working with the police. Our boss is a private investigator who has some questions for the woman who´s living in this building there.”, Will pointed at the house of Mrs. Gray.  
“But that´s-“, Sophie´s eyes widened, before she turned to the girl with the beautiful laughter who seemed to be as pale as snow by now.  
“I´m sorry Sophie, but I have to go. I´ve forgotten something at the hospital.”, she blurted out, attempting to leave.  
“But didn´t you wanted to look after your aunt Harriet?”, Sophie seemed to be as confused as Will and Jem.  
“Can you look after her for me, Sophie?”  
“But Te-“  
“Thank you! I owe you something!”, the girl called over her shoulder as she ran down the street, back from where she´d come.  
The three of them stood still on the street next to the car, looking after her, wondering what just happened.  
“I´m going to look after aunt Harriet.”, Sophie announced, leaving the two boys behind as she entered the building as well.


	9. Chapter 9

A few minutes later Magnus was leaving the building as well, looking everything but happy.  
“You okay, boss?”, Will asked as Magnus got wordlessly into the taxi´s backseat.  
“No.”, he said short-answered.  
“You wanna talk about it?”, Jem offered.  
“Not really”, Magnus sighed, “I actually don´t wanna talk at all right now if that´s okay for you?”  
“Sure”, Jem said sympathetic, “Was is that bad?”  
“In some ways, yes.”  
And with that they drove home without saying any further word.

 

Later that evening Magnus was sitting in his favorite armchair and drank some of his smuggled whiskey while staring thoughtful at their truly beautiful decorated sixth Christmas tree (the fifth hasn´t even survived one day) as Alexander stepped to him in the salon, taking a seat in the chair next to him.  
“Long day?”, he asked, his voice soft.  
“I´m pretty sure that´s an understatement.”, Magnus said, taking another sip.  
“You couldn´t know.”, he tried to assure him.  
“But I should have known it.”, Magnus said, angry with himself, “It was foolish to make myself hopes, to hope that I could escape-“, he stopped, shocked as he realized what he´d nearly said, what he would have nearly told Alexander.  
`to hope that I could escape my damnation.´  
Alexander gave him a worried look as he noticed how Magnus´ posture had stiffened.  
“My past.”, Magnus fastly added, “I´d hoped that I could finally let all of this behind me, but I guess that was foolish.”  
Well, it wasn´t completely a lie.  
But it wasn´t completely true either.  
“You´ve done a lot of foolish things, Magnus Bane.”, Alec said, looking him straight in the eyes, “But this, this wasn´t foolish. It will never be foolish to have hope, to want the truth, or justice.”  
“Maybe…”, Magnus sighed.  
“Hey, can I ask you something?”, Alec frowned, “What happened with your persian carpet?”, he pointed at a huge scorch on the bottom.  
“Tree number five.”, Magnus explained, confusing Alexander even more with these three simple words. “Chairman meow had managed to upset our last tree and the candles had set the whole thing on fire. Ragnor had managed to extinguish the fire but I fear that neither the tree nor the whole carpet had survived the flames.”  
Alec stared at him in shock before he burst out into loud laughter, throwing his head back in his neck.  
“What?”, Magnus stared at him bewildered.  
“You´re just-“, he tried to say something but failed because he couldn´t stop laughing, “It´s just that it seemingly never gets boring with you, isn´t it so?” He wiped away a tear of laughter.  
“No, that surely not.”, Magnus laughed lightly with him. Starting to feel better with every minute.  
Having Alec here simply made everything better.  
But the moment got interrupted by the ringing sound of his doorbells.  
Magnus sighed, going to open whoever it was who dared to interrupt his precious and beautiful time with Alexander.  
As he opened the door annoyed, already prepared to give his disturber a very unfriendly welcome, he stopped, staring wide eyed at the woman in front of him.  
She was wearing a purple dress and her black hair was pinned up to an ornate hairstyle.  
As she saw him she spread out her arms, giving him her typical predatory smile.  
“My dear nephew,” she said it in a tone that made his hackles set up, “have you missed me?”

To be continued...


End file.
